| Simon Watches NOAH - 2000s | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 24 2013, 02:30 PM (5,311 Views) | |
| Big Tuna | Apr 24 2014, 02:39 AM Post #41 |
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Kenta Kobashi [c] vs. Minoru Suzuki [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 1/8/2005 This is perfect for what it was. MiSu is a fucking miserable punk and he keeps avoiding chops and big moves and forcing Kobashi to the mat and laughing about it all the time. Kobashi punishes him as a result, but also falls into the trap MiSu lays while doing that. He works on the arm of Kobashi and keeps avoiding big bombs by attacking the arm. Unfortunately, he never stays on it because of his arrogance and Kobashi can come back for big nearfalls. I'm loving MiSu in 2004-5 as a guy who has the ability to be a main event guy anywhere, but loses because of his own arrogance. Kobashi then destroys him with head drops and Lariats. MiSu slaps and spits at him and a Burning Lariat retains the belt for Kobashi. This could have been more, but it was still great. *** Kenta Kobashi vs. Go Shiozaki, 1/23/2005 This is the best of Go's trial series matches, and it's pretty great for 15 minutes of Ace vs. young boy. Go controls with a headlock for a bit and then tries his hand at chopping, but that ends very poorly. Kobashi punishes his student, but Go shows a ton of fire. He has some great chops and a good Tope Suicida, but can't make too much of a mark on the man, and Kobashi puts him down with a Lariat. Two completely different matches, and both were great. ***1/4 Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiozaki/Mohammed Yone vs. Takeshi Rikio/Takeshi Morishima/Naomichi Marufuji, 2/20/2005 This is build for Kobashi/Rikioh in March. It also begins Kobashi's full-time mentorship of Go! Adn we get some nice pairings like Kobashi/Morishima and Kobashi/Mori that we don't get a lot. Yone actually brings it for once against Marufuji, and then Kobashi/Rikioh is the next pairing. Rikio completely fails to hang on a main event slugfest level with Kobashi and goes to midcarder level matwork, which should have been the warning for NOAH to turn around and stop this. Morishima does a better job than Rikioh and Go is a great FIP. Finishing run has cool things, and Go/Mori especially rules. Morishima beats the rookie with the Backdrop Suplex. ***1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | May 1 2014, 02:21 AM Post #42 |
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KENTA/Low Ki/Ricky Marvin vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/SUWA/Takashi Sugiura, 3/5/2005 KENTA AND SUWA FIGHT TO START IT OFF! THIS FEUD IS THE BEST! Things settle down a little bit after that, but it's still great. Low Ki is super impressive, Kanemaru is trying, and while Sugiura is still flawed at this point, he can come in and hit his cool stuff during a six man and not be exposed. SUWA is also the best pure heel in Japan as he does absolutely nothing flashy, but everything looks brutal and his cheating spots are great. He keeps going after KENTA too, as this feud gets the slow build like Kobashi/Akiyama sort of. Marvin is a great FIP, and KENTA gets pissed at the cheap shots and destroys Sugi with kicks. Good finishing run between Marvin and SUWA after Marvin gets back in, and SUWA hits the John Woo Dropkick and the FFF to win! ***1/2 Post-match, KENTA and SUWA fight to the back. Mitshuaru Misawa/Kotaro Suzuki vs. Shinjiro Ohtani/Tatsuhito Takaiwa, 3/5/2005 Ohtani and Takaiwa get to be invading heels, and you can tell how excited they are to get to work heel again. It's a natural thing for both of them. Kotaro is beat up a lot and Ohtani and Takaiwa rediscover the prick bastard heels they were in the 90s, but now with a veteran edge instead of being up and coming young punks. Kotaro is a good FIP and Misawa brings the fire for the first time in a while. Misawa/Ohtani is a great pairing. Kotaro knocks it out of the park against Takaiwa at the end. He kicks out of one DVD, but then Takaiwa does a Double Powerbomb and lifts Kotaro back up into a second DVD to win. ***1/2 Kenta Kobashi [c] vs. Takeshi Rikio [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 3/5/2005 Kobashi does what he can and Rikio is trying hard for obvious reasons. It's fairly standard stuff with a lot of striking and escalation to big head drops. Rikio super disappointingly wins the title with a Muso. It's a fairly basic lift slam that would be a great finisher by a power guy in the US. But this is NOAH and it doesn't cut it to end a reign that's survived the biggest bombs Misawa and Akiyama and Taue and Takayama had to offer. *** The Reign comes to an end, and this is the booking mistake that eventually sank NOAH. Kobashi was still completely on fire at this point and Rikio was very much not. He's the rookie of the NOAH class of Rikio, Morishima, KENTA, and Marufuji that had progressed the least and was the least over. I'm not saying any of them should have had it at this point though, because Kobashi still had so much to do. They could have gone with outsiders like Ohtani or Tenryu (who has started working NOAH here), or Morishima for challengers. Those three could take him through the summer and maybe even fall. And by then you can have him actually put over Akiyama going into 2006 or had him have matches with KENTA and Marufuji in 2006 that he had anyways then, but now for the belt. The point is, Kobashi is the hottest thing in NOAH, which at the time was the hottest company in Japan, and he's got until June 2006 when he gets cancer. Rikio never took as the top guy because the switch was completely inorganic, and you'll see NOAH's band-aid attempt later in 2005. NOAH never has the same drawing power again as they did under Kobashi's reign on top after he goes down in 2006 and a legitimate successor is also never established. Because he went over Akiyama and Taue like he did, when they win the title, it's seen as an obvious stopgap. Misawa gets it later, but he's too old and by the time a legit successor comes to it in 2009, Kobashi is a cripple who can't work singles matches and Misawa is dead. So while Go Shiozaki is a decent successor and has a decent rogues gallery to work with, it doesn't matter because nobody's ACTUALLY passed a real torch since Misawa to Kobashi in 2003. We've seen the rise of Pro Wrestling NOAH, and it's now time for the decline. It's a cautionary tale. Usually, things are about champions holding on too long, but this is the rare other way, and it's one of the worst booking decisions in Japan ever. |
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| Big Tuna | May 20 2014, 01:53 AM Post #43 |
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Kenta Kobashi/Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji/Makoto Hashi, 4/2/2005 FUCK YEAH GENERATION BATTLE! Each junior is also against their main mentor too. The best story as always is Akiyama vs. Hashi, and Hashi is now taking shots at Akiyama whenever he can, pissed that he can't seem to ever impress his idol. Kobashi and KENTA have another remarkable stiff-fest. Misawa's even putting in the effort here! Marufuji is a great FIP and the veterans get increasingly aggressive and violent. Hashi is isolated next, and Akiyama again shines when beating up his accidental protege. KENTA and Marufuji have great hot tags and there's some great nearfalls before Hashi gets back in to lose. Kobashi hits him with a Lariat to win. It's amazing that they got 30 minutes out of this and delivered an amazing match despite the result never ever being in doubt. ***3/4 Jun Akiyama vs. Makoto Hashi, 4/3/2005 I THINK this is their final singles match, which is a shame. This is easily their best match together and starts super hot. Hashi survives an immediate Exploder, BUT THEN BRINGS THE FIGHT WITH A REVERSE DDT ON THE APRON! YEAH! It goes into the crowd and Akiyama punishes Hashi for actually trying to win instead of fighting for bullshit respect. Akiyama gets super rough and Hashi looks like an actual future player instead of just a young boy for once in one of these matches. Hashi throws out everything he has, but Akiyama survives. He doesn't play around at the end either and cuts Hashi off WITH A STRAIGHT PUNCH TO THE MOUTH! YEAH! Hashi's also graduated to needing the Wrist-Clutch Exploder to put him down. Great fucking match. **** Kenta Kobashi/KENTA/Ricky Marvin vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Takashi Sugiura, 4/3/2005 YEAH! Sugi cheap shots KENTA to bring us a great opening fight. This is a great classic tag format deal. Kobashi's team dominates in the first half after the initial pairings, and then the low man on the totem pole Ricky Marvin gets isolated. There's some good work from everyone on the more heelish side, and then KENTA has a killer hot tag as usual. Finishing run is great, and it's just classic tag formula stuff using some awesome wrestlers. And also, Yoshinobu Kanemaru is in this match, but he wasn't able to hurt it. Kanemaru vs. Marvin is surprisingly good, and Kanemaru wins with the Touch Out on Marvin. ***1/2 Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiozaki vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Mohammed Yone, 4/17/2005 Good stuff. Not the best Kobashi/Go tag, because Misawa and Yone aren't guys who are going to get super super violent or nasty to make Go shine as an FIP, but the kid still has a lot of fire. Kobashi works well with everyone at this point, and more Kobashi/Misawa is always kind of a treat. Yone gets a needed win when he beats Go with the Muscle Buster. *** KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji/Ricky Marvin/Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/SUWA/Takashi Sugiura/Makoto Hashi [Elimination Match], 4/17/2005 This is JIP, but we still get 30ish minutes. Kotaro is isolated as the match begins and SUWA in particular has amazing work here. KENTA goes after SUWA when he gets in and the match kind of breaks down with some cool sequences. Hashi misses a clothesline on Marufuji, and Maru Superkicks him, AND ELIMINATES KANEMARU FIRST WITH A CRADLE! YEAH! In addition to giving the vibe that the normal elimination order is out the window, it also gets rid of Kanemaru! Hashi is isolated for a bit, but he can get to tag in SUWA. It breaks down again, and SUWA hits rookie Kotaro with the John Woo and then FFF to even it up at 3v3. Sugi isolates Marvin with his power and delivers some great mockery and cut off spots. SUWA gets distracted by KENTA when he comes in, AND MARVIN GETS HIM WITH THE WEST COAST POP FOR ANOTHER UPSET ELIMINATION! Sugiura AGAIN shuts down the offensive and Olympic Slams Marvin to even it back up. KENTA/Sugiura is again, just the best. What starts to hurt this is slowing it way down again after the hot middle and doing it in front of a dead smaller crowd. I have no idea why THIS is in front of a dead small crowd instead of a bigger venue. SUWA interferes to stop the Doomsday Shiranui, but Maru jumps off with a sunset flip to get Hashi for three anyways. Sugi puts Maru out on the floor and comes super close against KENTA, but Maru gets back in to save. They then kill him with two Superkick/High Kick combos, and KENTA wins with the Go 2 Sleep. This is both great and disappointing. *** Akira Taue/Takuma Sano vs. Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone, 4/24/2005 Awesome 10ish minute midcard deal. It's the kind of match that sneaks up on you and by the last few minutes, you realize this has been great. Mori and Yone make a surprisingly good team, and Morishima going from Rikio to Yone is somewhat of a move up quality wise, although it's not a big jump. Yone keeps taunting Taue all match long and doing his move, and then Taue gets in and makes him pay for it. They make Yone look weirdly tough though with a few Chokeslam kickouts before a Back Suplex lift into a Chokeslam puts him away. *** KENTA vs. SUWA, 4/24/2005 This is more of an angle than a match, but they still get a good six minutes. KENTA COMES FROM THE CROWD TO ATTACK SUWA! THEY FIGHT AND SUWA HITS A BEAUTIFUL TOPE SUICIDA! FUCK YEAH! This is super short, but basically everything in this looks designed to really fuck each other up between hard throws and brutally stiff shots on every single strike. SUWA hits a straight punt to the dick to draw a warning from the ref who's clearly letting a ton go. KENTA fights back when SUWA brings the steel ring crew box in the ring, and HE CHUCKS IT FIGHT IN KENTA'S FACE FOR THE DQ. *** Post-match, Sugiura and Kanemaru come down to help beat on KENTA before referees break it up. Before the next match, the insane 7/18 DESTINY~ Tokyo Dome show main event is announced on the screen as Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki. Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama/Genichiro Tenryu, 4/24/2005 DIS MATCH. Kobashi vs. Akiyama is gold, and Akiyama and Tenryu make the perfect team of surly veterans to destroy Go for a face in peril segment. There's even a super cool moment before the match where Akiyama comes out wearing a Revolution (Tenryu's sort of brand/catchphrase) shirt in Akiyama's trademark white. He gives one to Tenryu too, and Tenryu looks the happiest he's ever been in the last decade as he shakes his hand. Daaaaaaaw. Tenryu isn't here to play dream match either, AS HE RUSHES KOBASHI, THROWS HIM OUT, AND THEN FUCKING HURLS A TABLE INTO HIS FACE. Kobashi gets up and wants to fight, but Tenryu then goes back to his corner, and you have a huge thing set up for later in the match. Tenryu is the best. TENRYU HURLS A WATER BOTTLE AT KOBASHI FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING, OH MY GOD. A bunch more of those moments before they have a big run at the end, and Go gets a lot of the focus. Tenryu's punch cut offs are the best and he motivates Akiyama to get even more violent. Kobashi gets in and destroys them, AND HE FUCKING BUSTS OPEN TENRYU'S CHEST WITH THE FORCE OF HIS CHOPS HOLY FUCK. Kobashi gets double teamed, and Go shows his worth by saving Kobashi from defeat. He gets in, but then is over his head in a finishing situation here. He kicks out of Tenryu's Lariat, but then goes down to the Powerbomb. ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | May 25 2014, 12:59 AM Post #44 |
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KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji vs. KUDO/Kota Ibushi, 5/7/2005 The Differ Cup is hosted by NOAH this year, and KENTA and KUDO bring us the INTERPROMOTIONAL HATE. SLAPPING, FUCK YEAH. KICKING HARD THAN USUAL! KENTA and Marufuji are veterans here and KENTA seems to relish getting to beat people up and be a dick. Kota makes with the high flying and has his first standout performance. He's super sympathetic as a FIP and takes a great bump off the top to the floor in transition. Really great KUDO hot tag and then Kota finishing run. He actually uses a regular Moonsault as a nearfall, which is a great thing to know based on one of his trademark spots over the last 7 years. Anyways, KENTA beats him with the Busaiku Knee. ***1/4 KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kaz Hayashi/Spanky, 5/7/2005 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DREAM MATCH SORT OF. This was a little disappointing though, as they did kind of a generic face/face thing. This was also 20 minutes when 10-15 would have sufficed. Great finishing run though, and the KENTA/Hayashi sections throughout were great, and Kendrick did a pretty good job for himself. KENTA got rid of Hayashi with the Busaiku Knee, and Marufuji blocked the Sliced Bread #2 with a Bridging O'Connor Roll to win. *** KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ikuto Hidaka/Minoru Fujita [2005 DIFFER CUP FINALS], 5/8/2005 Big 30 minute epic between the best team in any juniors division and the best indy junior team. Hidaka and Fujita are so over that KENTA and Marufuji sort of just go with it and work as dominant heels to make it all work smoother. Great finishing run as they go after KENTA's knee to try and disable the kicks, but because Marufuji is such a good tag partner, they never really get any traction there and it turns into a move for move deal, and no team can hang with KENTAFuji there. Still, some super super super super super SUPER close nearfalls are going on, and KENTA eventually puts down indy scum Fujita with the Busaiku Knee. ***1/2 Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Makoto Hashi, 5/13/2005 HEADBUTT FIGHT. This is needlessly long at 20 minutes for a draw and really holds back two guys who are great in 10-15 minute singles matches. First 10 minutes was a kind of routine technical deal. Not bad at all, but very clearly preamble to the obvious head toughness war. They end up going to a 20 minute draw after a mostly really fun second half. Lots of loud and super violent headbutts. **3/4 Jun Akiyama/Genichiro Tenryu/Go Shiozaki vs. Takeshi Rikio/Mohammed Yone/KENTA, 5/17/2005 Akiyama and Tenryu are together again, now with Go under their wing in an increasingly familiar random ass NOAH trio. KENTA and Akiyama still hate each other, and Tenryu more than embraces the hatred of his new best friend, acting like KENTA fucked his daughter or something. Lots of slapping, face punching, face kicking, etc. It's especially damning that Rikio is supposed to be the top guy as the GHC Champ and aside from Yone, comes across as the least important guy here. KENTA/Tenryu and Akiyama is a focus, and Go continues to shine as the rookie whipping boy. TENRYU HURLS A TABLE AT KENTA ON THE FLOOR, CONTINUING THAT AMAZING TREND. Tenryu then politely returns the table to where it was in the crowd. The control segs by Akiyama/Tenryu are the best stuff in this by far, and while the finishing run stuff is good, it really can't compare. Yone beats Go with the Muscle Buster. ***1/4 Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda vs. Minoru Suzuki/Naomichi Marufuji, 5/17/2005 Super fun stuff here. MiSu and Marufuji have such an entertaining odd couple deal. Suzuki vs. Honda on THE MAT is fantastic. Kobashi murders both MiSu and Marufuji, and some of MiSu's cockiness rubs off on Marufuji, so this is basically everything you'd want out of this match. Honda's knee is worked over with some good stuff from both guys early on, and his selling is good as usual. This develops into much more of a great formula style tag than I expected, and keeps breaking down with these amazing spots where MiSu and Maru get super cocky and get destroyed for it and even break out stooging spots. Kobashi finally gets MiSu alone at the end and destroys him with chops before he hands him back off to Honda, who's been antagonized all match. Marufuji is fast enough to break loose from Kobashi and turn the tide for MiSu, and then Suzuki can choke out Honda with a Rear Naked Choke ***1/2 It's not online anywhere, but on June 4th, KENTA and Marufuji finally lost the Jr. Tag Titles to Kanemaru & Sugiura. Minoru Suzuki vs. Takuma Sano, 6/5/2005 Awesome mat based match, calling back to their shoot-style days. Sano hurts the arm of Suzuki with a sustained Juigatame, and Suzuki does really well at selling it for the rest of the match and they make it a focus. More importantly, a bad arm stops Suzuki from being able to block Sano's kicks, which are his biggest weapon. Sano doubles down on this by throwing kicks at the arm. Suzuki finally stops it and does the logical thing by going after Sano's leg. He takes the first shot he has and puts on an STS for the submission. ***1/4 Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Tamon Honda/Go Shiozaki, 7/2/2005 Kobashi vs. Go rules again. We also don't often see Kobashi/Honda as a pairing due to the teaming, so that's a blast. Honda brings the fire when he's the leader of a team and tries his best to hang with Kobashi. Kikuchi guides young Go through some really quick basic cruiserweight type stuff early on too. Both Go and Kikuchi are isolated, and Kikuchi is again the best FIP of all time maybe. Kikuchi beats Go with the Fireball Bomb. *** |
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| Big Tuna | May 28 2014, 12:22 AM Post #45 |
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FUCK YEAH IT'S TIME FOR NOAH'S DESTINY SHOW. This is the highest drawing Tokyo Dome show to date since the early 2000s, and represents the business peak of NOAH. It's all downhill from here, unfortunately. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [c] vs. KENTA [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 7/18/2005 It's finally KENTA's time to win the belt, and doing it at the biggest NOAH show ever is a pretty big statement and great booking decision. In a perfect world where NOAH is run properly after 2005, this is the swan song for Kanemaru as a top level junior guy, but oh well. We'll get to that later. It's very much a straight ahead strike and movefest and the initial exchange sets Kanemaru up as above KENTA, so it means more when he gradually overwhelms him over the course of 20 minutes. KENTA works on the arm of Kanemaru first, but Kanemaru hits a DDT off the top to cut that off. He sells the arm well enough in transition, so whatever. He focuses on head and neck stuff to set up for his Brainbuster, and it's a nice focus that's again usually missing from NOAH Jr. Title matches. Kanemaru even goes back to arm selling a few times, and this is the best Kanemaru performance I've ever seen. They maybe go a little long in the finishing run in terms of a clear ending point, but there's a lot of quality too. KENTA countering the top rope DDT now, Kanemaru blocking the GTS into a Brainbuster, KENTA trying a Liger Bomb, Kanemaru pulling the tights and still failing, etc. KENTA finally wins with the Busaiku Knee. ***3/4 Minoru Suzuki/Naomichi Marufuji [c] vs. Jun Akiyama/Makoto Hashi [GHC Tag Team Championship], 7/18/2005 Also great. Super fast Hashi/Maru stuff rules, and then MiSu again antagonizes one of NOAH's big killers. Hashi is isolated and that's the best. Marufuji is really good about changing his offense to mostly quick kicks and attacks to the head, and Suzuki continues to be king of all dick heels. Akiyama has some great hot tags against Suzuki, but at the same time, he keeps trying to get Hashi in there to get a big win. However they fail because they're a worse tag team. Suzuki is always in faster to break up stuff and Marufuji is super quick about the saves, and Akiyama just...isn't. It's a weird bit of booking, but it puts the champs over super strong. Suzuki holds Akiyama off while they wreck Hashi, and Marufuji gets the win with a Super Shiranui. **** Takeshi Rikio [c] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 7/18/2005 This is hilarious, and on here to again illustrate NOAH's creative failure. Rikio is fourth from the top (I couldn't find Tenryu vs. Yoshinari Ogawa, which is above this) on the biggest NOAH show of all time as its champion. You can argue a dream match thing, but last year's Dome show had a fucking MISAWA VS. MUTOH tag and Kobashi still main evented over that with the belt. In a token defense against an NJPW guy, the NJPW guy winds up looking more like The Man than Rikio. Tanahashi basically does all the heavy lifting and good stuff against Rikio, before he loses to the Muso. It's very average, but also noteworthy. **1/2 Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki, 7/18/2005 This is one of the two dream matches the show was sold on. It's a perfect epic heavyweight clash of the titans deal. THE CHOP BATTLES, JESUS. They start with power moves and big man dives and it all escalates super super super well. Everything they do feels super impactful and important. They have the longest sustained chop battle of all time at 4 minutes of just chops before Kobashi can take Kenskee down with one. After the chops, they move into lots of big moves that again are laid out perfectly to get bigger and bigger. Kobashi gets the win with a Running Lariat. ****1/4 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada, 7/18/2005 This is their final match. It's way too long at 27 minutes for a Misawa match in 2005, but I ended up liking it because it was still these two and as far as nostalgia matches go, they at least built to stuff and had some cool big spots on the ramp and head drops and shit. Also, Kawada is just getting out of his last great run too, so he's still got about enough to have some great sells and moments of fire and fight. They broke out all the big stuff, and Misawa naturally got the win, doing so with the Running Elbow. Fuck it, go three. *** |
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| Big Tuna | May 31 2014, 01:56 AM Post #46 |
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Takeshi Morishima vs. SUWA, 8/19/2005 SUWA is going into his title shot against KENTA in September, so he's super aggressive against a bigger guy he has no chance against. He cheats a bunch and is an asshole and the bigger stronger guy comes back and makes him pay. Classic 10 minute pro wrestling package. Morishima shows a lot of his future great brawling potential when it goes into the crowd early on too. Morishima hits the Lariat and Backdrop Hold to win. *** Mitsuharu Misawa/Go Shiozaki vs. Akira Taue/Takuma Sano, 8/19/2005 This is JIP and only 8 minutes, but there's a lot of quality. Taue and Sano have a really good control segment on young Go, and Misawa is a great hot tag in these short bursts even in his advancing age. Go gets in some at the end, but then dies and Sano wins with the Flying Double Stomp. **1/2 Minoru Suzuki/Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA/Tamon Honda, 8/19/2005 KENTA hates Suzuki for some reason. They have amazing slap and kicking contests. Suzuki also annoys Honda, so Honda tortures Maru with variations on an arm triangle hold, and it's a blast. KENTA antagonizes MiSu so MiSu takes him into the crowd and hurls chairs into his face and stomps the fuck out of him and it's so great. KENTA is a good FIP and has a ton of fire on the comeback. Honda has a killer hot tag, but Maru holds KENTA back and Minoru can easily overwhelm Honda. He hits the Gotch-style Piledriver to win. **** Kenta Kobashi/Makoto Hashi vs. Jun Akiyama/Yoshinobu Kanemaru, 8/19/2005 Akiyama and Hashi have again split, but now Kobashi is with Honda and Akiyama is enraged. Hashi is super super fired up, KOBASHI VS. AKIYAMA GETS TO HAPPEN AGAIN, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru is also in this match. Kobashi keeps urging Hashi to man up against Akiyama, who remains violent and aggressively opposed as all hell to that idea. This is a perfect formula tag split into quarters. The first is establishing the theme with the Hashi thing. Then the faces isolate Kanemaru, then Hashi is isolated, and then the finishing run. Both control segments are pretty great. Hashi vs. Kanemaru at the end is so good and everyone is so behind Hashi including me. Akiyama interferes to cut him off with a Lariat, and then Kanemaru hits the Brainbuster to win. God damnit, NOAH. **** |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 1 2014, 04:24 PM Post #47 |
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KENTA [c] vs. SUWA [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 9/18/2005 SUWA comes out wielding the huge steel case that he beat KENTA up with in April. KENTA immediately attacks and takes it to the floor, but SUWA hits him with the ring bell. It goes back in and the ref warns him, but SUWA hits KENTA with the steel case and gets DQ'd. SUWA leaves, but KENTA chases after him to throw him back in and a restart is given. SUWA puts out an all-time great heel performance and uses every trick in the book in an environment that rarely sees them. He goes to the eyes, goes low, shoves fans, spitting on young boys, undoes the turnbuckle pad, etc. He responds to the ref warning him about that by whipping him with the turnbuckle pad because the ref's shown that he wants this feud to end tonight, so he won't actually do a god damned thing. SUWA cuts off KENTA's comebacks with dick kicks and KENTA finally sticks a comeback. Great finishing run and KENTA gets a revenge spot with a dick kick of his own. He wins a punch off and then destroys SUWA's head with high kicks before winning with the Busaiku Knee Strike. ****1/4 Kenta Kobashi/Akira Taue vs. Jun Akiyama/Genichiro Tenryu, 9/18/2005 Akiyama and Tenryu are the best occasional tag team of 2005. They can't ever be a long term thing because they're too big of stars as singles wrestlers, but it's a perfect team of a surly dick and even surlier dick. And then yeah, Kobashi vs. both of them is awesome and Taue is motivated. So this is also amazing. This is a super well put together match of escalating big moves and strikes. Taue seriously comes alive in a HUGE way in his now yearly thing from 2003-5 with a ton of fire and accuracy on top of his usual amazing mind for layout. Things get bigger and bigger and the nearfalls are great and Taue ends up getting kind of an upset in when he beats Akiyama with a Super Chokeslam. ****1/4 Genichiro Tenryu vs. KENTA, 10/8/2005 ANOTHER GREAT ONE. They have the exact 10-12 minutes you want. KENTA tries to man up and gets totally destroyed for a while. Tenryu hits him with chairs initially, and then when KENTA fights back again, TENRYU TAKES HIM TO THE FLOOR AND HITS HIM IN THE MOUTH WITH THE RING BELL HAMMER AND KENTA STARTS BLEEDING FROM THE MOUTH. KENTA eventually comes back, but Tenryu cuts him off abruptly with a Lariat and just wins. That was everything I wanted and literally nothing that I saw coming. ***1/2 Kenta Kobashi/Makoto Hashi vs. Jun Akiyama/SUWA, 10/22/2005 It ruled because SUWA was an asshole and Akiyama/Hashi is amazing. And hey, that Kobashi/Akiyama beef is still my favorite. This match goes back and forth between Hashi being destroyed and SUWA being punished for being a piece of shit, and both are among the best things in NOAH at this time. HASHI FINALLY SNAPS AT AKIYAMA AND BEATS THE SHIT OUT OF HIM WITH CHAIRS AND STUFF ON THE FLOOR! YEAH! Which, yeah, he ends up getting kicked in the dick by SUWA the moment he gets back in, and suffers for his insolence. Big finishing run and Akiyama cuts off Hashi's win again to allow SUWA to hit the FFF to win. ***1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 15 2014, 03:49 PM Post #48 |
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Minoru Suzuki/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jun Akiyama/Shiro Koshinaka, 11/5/2005 This isn't lighting the world on fire or anything but it's some good wrestlers doing good wrestling for close to twenty minutes. Akiyama and MiSu are both surely assholes, Marufuji flies around a lot, and Koshinaka is motivated again. MiSu and Akiyama are both huge assholes and it's a great and rare heel/face vs. heel/face match that works while highlighting the roles and not making anyone into a situational heel or face. Akiyama vs. Marufuji is fantastic at the end and Akiyama wins with the Sternness Dust Gamma. ***1/4 Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima, 11/5/2005 DIS MATCH. Kobashi and Kensuke HATE each other apparently, and they take out on each other's young boys, who also hate each other. There's something weird in the air in prime NOAH where everyone absolutely loathes each other for no reason, and it's the best. People are hitting super fucking hard with a clear story and the crowd is INSANE and this is perfect. Everything escalates amazingly and we get the big strike battles before Shiozaki is beaten by a Lariat from Sasaki. ****1/4 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone [c] vs. KENTA/Katsuyori Shibata [GHC Tag Team Championship], 11/5/2005 Shibata left NJPW at the end of 2004 to become a freelancer. That basically fell apart in 2006 when he decided to be an MMA guy and was horrible at it, but at least there's some fun stuff from that in 2005. KENTA and Shibata are both super surly with the champs, and it makes some wonderful strike exchanges with Morishima. KENTA and Shibata pay for their disrespect and die a lot throughout. Big awesome finishing run, and Morishima beats KENTA with the Backdrop Hold. ***1/2 Takeshi Rikio [c] vs. Akira Taue [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 11/5/2005 Taue takes his shot at ending the reign of terror. He throws everything out at Rikio including his recklessly awkward Tope Suicida. Rikio is still the most mediocre dude who ever mediocred, but Taue cares enough and the crowd is hot enough to just BARELY pull this through. Rikio seems to shut him down and he hits the Muso, BUT TAUE KICKS OUT FUCK YEAH! Taue pulls through after that with his world of Chokeslam counters, AND TAUE ENDS THE REIGN WITH THE ORE GA TAUE! FUCK YEAH TAUE MIRACLE RUN! *** KENTA/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/SUWA, 11/18/2005 This has KENTA vs. SUWA in it, so it is accordingly great. It's low level great, but still great. Kikuchi is old and mean and gets targeted again because this is just the way his life goes. SUWA is mean and nasty and keeps abusing poor Kikuchi. Kanemaru is whatever, but he's good vs. KENTA. SUWA ends ups beating Kikuchi with the FFF. *** Jun Akiyama vs. Takashi Sugiura, 11/27/2005 This is a lot of fun and a good showing of what Sugi will someday be capable of. Akiyama against young punks is amazing, always. Sugiura is quite the young punk. Akiyama decides to brawl and throws chairs at Sugi in the crowd and hits an Exploder on the ramp early on. Akiyama then starts in with that sweet ass control segment with tons of nasty knees and violent ass stomps everywhere. Sugiura has a great comeback, and although he's not at his 2009-11 peak of surly stiffness yet, he has some nice moments before he's shut down. He gets to kick out of the Exploder after a Boma Ye, but the Wrist-Clutch Exploder spells the end. *** Kenta Kobashi/Mitsuharu Misawa/Akira Taue vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji/Mushiking Terry, 11/27/2005 This is lesser than the Old v. New match in April for a few reasons. #1 is that Mushiking Terry is Kotaro Suzuki who is not as good as Hashi was in the role. #2 is that Taue is in there instead of Akiyama, or maybe that's Misawa instead of Akiyama. Either way, the Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama trio was better. Taue is awesome here as his miracle run rolls on, so that probably has something to do with it. But still! KENTAFUJI DOING STUFF TO LEGENDS! There's some great flashes of 2006 singles matches with Taue/Maru, Kobashi/Maru, and Kobashi/KENTA. Maru is a good FIP and KENTA's hot tag is quality again. Terry is the obvious weak link that keeps getting saved, but when Misawa and Kobashi can cut off the actual tag team, Taue beats him with the Ore Ga Taue. ***1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 15 2014, 05:07 PM Post #49 |
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Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Jun Akiyama/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, 12/4/2005 Akiyama vs. Kensuke is a pretty big potential match up and this is a good preview of what eventually takes a little over three more years to transpire. And then yeah, Nakajima is great as a young energetic rookie for Akiyama to destroy. Kikuchi also winds up getting a lot of the business before they beat up Nakajima for a while. There's a solid finishing run with the heavyweight and junior pairings, and Nakajima gets a big win for himself with a Bridging German on Kikuchi. ***1/4 Mitsuharu Misawa/Go Shiozaki vs. KENTA/Katsuyori Shibata, 12/4/2005 Awesome! This fucking ruled. Misawa is trying and offended by KENTA and Shibata's lack of any respect, and Go wants to step up. So you have one of the best of all time trying there with three super hungry and talented striking type guys. This is a blast. They do groundwork in the first ten minutes establishing these ideas with teasers and then the kickers have a nasty nasty control seg on Go. Go has a good comeback and stuff but he's still pretty new and Shibata wins with the Penalty Kick. ***1/4 Akira Taue [c] vs. Takeshi Morishima [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 12/4/2005 Morishima gets his first big shot and shows a lot and lot of potential. WAY more than Rikio. Taue really lets him shine and structures the match so he has a super hard time handling the power and weight of Morishima, putting him over huge before he eventually pulls through at the end. Morishima isn't all the way there yet and still has some trouble filling space, but hey. Big fun finishing run, and Morishima survives a lot of the Chokeslams. Taue even tries the one off the apron at a point and hits it. It's basically over once he gets him back in the ring, but Morishima kicks out of the cover. He tries a comeback, but Taue hits the Chichibu Cement for the win. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 29 2014, 03:02 AM Post #50 |
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NOAH in 2006 is generally agreed upon as the beginning of the decline. The peak ended in late 2005, and in 2006, they lose Kobashi for a year and a half to cancer, take a gamble with Marufuji and KENTA and then bail on it after one speed bump, and revert back to a default setting that is no longer feasible in 2006, all while the basic booking core breaks down and most matches wind up as mix and match tags and six mans without a lot of consistency. Should be fun. KENTA/Ricky Marvin vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Kotaro Suzuki, 1/8/2006 Two weeks out from KENTA/Marufuji II for the title, we get a Parejas Increibles. This is a relatively basic junior tag. KENTA kicks hard and Marvin does lucha and the others do their normal spots. It kind of slowly builds up until a big finishing run, and they give you enough to psyche you up for KENTA/Marufuji, but not enough to spoil it really. KENTA and Marufuji have a run of counters at the end, and Marufuji gets a double chickenwing and bridges back into a pin for the win. *** KENTA [c] vs. Naomichi Marufuji [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 1/22/2006 This is amazing, and still just a warm up for what they have in the tank in the fall. KENTA kicks ass until Marufuji can start in on his innovation game with a lot of new stuff. He's breaking out dropkicks from everyone including a kind of Poetry in Motion leap over the top into a dropkick on the floor. He also keeps cutting KENTA off by using his own shit like the Busaiku Knee. KENTA stands no shot until he breaks out new nutty stuff too, like a fucking Super Falcon Arrow. Yes, this match is total excess. This pairing is total excess, but until their high water mark in late 2006 and summer 2007, it's GREAT excess in front of super hot crowds and a blast to watch. Marufuji is in total control of this at every moment as KENTA falls into his traps, so it's only fitting that he thinks he's in control enough to get into a strike match with KENTA, but then KENTA rocks him with a series of head kicks and his plans go out the window. He kicks out of the Go to Sleep, but then gets a Northern Busaiku Knee and a regular one and KENTA pulls it out. ***1/2 Akira Taue [c] vs. Jun Akiyama [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 1/22/2006 This rules, because it can't not. They drop bombs for 20 minutes, and it's beautiful. TAUE WITH THE TAUE-PE SUICIDA! They build well to the nearfalls in the second half, and there's some nice big match stuff like Taue doing a top rope splash and Chokeslamming Akiyama off the ramp. Akiyama also gets in the game with some great high knee variants like off the top and off the apron. Taue hits the Super Chokeslam like in September but he's a lot more beat up here because it's not a tag, and the crawl means Akiyama can now kick out. Akiyama panics after that and goes nuts with the knees. He hits three regular Boma Ye type ones, a high one, and then one to the back of the head to win the belt back finally. ***3/4 Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone/KENTA, 2/17/2006 This is a great example of that. Kobashi vs. KENTA is booked for March, so that makes sense, but Kanemaru being paired with BURNING members when he's Akiyama's boy is terrible. Morishima immediately goes after Kobashi's head, along with KENTA. KENTA is kind of a cocky little shit to Kobashi now, so he hurts him for that. Yone even hits hard here, so this is kind of a magic one where everything clicks perfectly. KENTA and Kanemaru both eat shit as the smallest men here and get isolated. KENTA in particular is stretched by the dude Honda. It breaks into a cool crowd fight with everyone in the bleachers and KENTA fucks up Kobashi's life back in the ring with a soccer punt and escapes his torment. Morishima goes for the king some more and gets close. Honda beats Tone with the Dead End German. ***1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 31 2014, 03:03 AM Post #51 |
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Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue, 3/5/2006 Taue is kind of annoyed after losing the title, and Maru uses speed to stun and confuse him. Taue makes use of the size disparity to throw Marufuji around and do several exchanges where Maru tries a strike 2-3 times and can't drop him, but Taue can drop him with it in one try. Taue also adapts to Maru by enabling Maru to try and kill himself in new dangerous ways, like a Chokeslam throw into the ringpost. Marufuji impressively survives the Chokeslam and Dynamic Bomb, and blocks the Ore Ga Taue. Unfortunately, Taue does the worst thing you can do against Marufui and he gets frustrated and messes up. He tries a top rope Chokeslam to try and end it quick instead of damaging Maru enough for it to work. Marufuji backflips out to his feet and he hits a Superkick and then ties Taue up in a wrist-clutch inside cradle for the upset! ***1/2 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takeshi Morishima, 3/5/2006 This is a killer. Morishima goes for the kill pretty quickly with lots of clubbing and hard hitting, and reminds me just why everyone thought he was going to be a huge deal when he started breaking out like this in 2006-7. Misawa does his elbows and stuff, but this is about Morishima throwing his weight around and really laying into Big Green. Misawa has his super famous fiery elbow comebacks and the finishing run is awesome. Morishima doesn't come close to a real win, but he fires Misawa up for the first time in like two years, so Misawa nukes him with a bunch of elbows and a running one for 2.9 and then another running one to win. ***3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA, 3/5/2006 STIFF. KENTA wants to step up and not just prove he's as good/better than his mentor in the classic story, but there's also a junior heavyweight pride type deal AND the fact that his ex/sometimes-partner and constant rival Marufuji beat a heavyweight earlier on. Kobashi is not Taue though, and KENTA does not try and lay traps. He kicks hard and smacks Kobashi in the face, and that is a great game. Some disgustingly beautiful strikes going on here and KENTA tries to die a few times by landing directly on his head. Kobashi gives his boy way more than any heavyweight has given a junior, letting him dominate him and even taking a massive bump off the apron. He does some arm work too as a kind of thought of "I should probably try and cut that comeback off too" after he's already dominated him. Kobashi sells well on the comeback. They do some quality stuff, but it goes a little bit long at the end. KENTA tries the combo of knees that he used to beat Marufuji, but Kobashi is not Marufuji, and cuts that off with a Lariat. KENTA kicks out and Kobashi sort of just decides this match is going to be over now and hits the wrist-clutch Burning Hammer to win. ***1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 2 2014, 03:34 AM Post #52 |
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Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji, 4/2/2006 This would have been better in 2006 because by now, Kikuchi is kind of breaking down, but it still delivers on the promise of the dream match and is a great one due to Kobashi doing most of the work. KENTA/Kobashi still exists as a major beef that never really becomes what it could due to events in June 2006. So they hit hard and keep taking cheap shots and brawling. Kobashi/Marufuji is booked in a few weeks so Maru wants to test the waters before then, but Kobashi treats him like a pest when he gets in the way. It dips a little bit when Kikuchi is isolated and loses that punishment of the first third. HE does have a wonderful flurry at the end that is reminiscent of 1990-2004 Kikuchi though. KENTA beats him with the Busaiku Knee. ***1/2 Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda vs. Jun Akiyama/Yoshinobu Kanemaru, 4/16/2006 YEAH KOBASHI VS. AKIYAMA AGAIN! WOO! This is probably too long and weirdly structured so Kobashi and Honda are in control for once instead of STERNNESS, but it still wound up being good due to that old thing about great wrestlers usually producing great matches. Honda has some super nasty looking holds and stretches in this, and there's a great Akiyama/Kobashi exchange that Akiyama actually gets the better of (!!!). Honda hits the Dead End German to win. *** Kenta Kobashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji, 4/23/2006 This is the last singles match of Kobashi's career, unfortunately. Another important part in the rise of Marufuji, as he pushes Kobashi obscenely far. I say obscenely because while KENTA is a hard hitting buzzsaw with years of studying Kobashi from the corner, Marufuji is more your classic high spotty high flying junior with none of those advantages. However, he is super smart. Kobashi really does not like him, and I remembered that one match where Marufuii was on a Burning team and Kobashi looked like he only tolerated him because he was KENTA's best friend. But now with the KENTA/Kobashi bond very frayed, Kobashi finally gets to just stretch and torture and beat the shit out of this little punk. Maru has one of the best and most crisp comebacks of his life and really seems like he earns the near-win. He uses his Superkicks better than ever before and breaks out a ton of crazy stuff. Kobashi cuts off his attempt at the crazy cradle that beat Taue with a nasty Lariat to the face, BUT MARUFUJI KICKS OUT WHOA! Kobashi then finishes it with a Brainbuster for the win. ***3/4 Jun Akiyama [c] vs. Masao Inoue [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 4/23/2006 This is a Budokan main event. Akiyama is again tanked by NOAH booking when they finally give him the ball again as they give him a jobber and of course it does a poor attendance. Still though, hell of a match. Akiyama fully proves his merit as an Ace figure (although he never really gets to BE one for long) by getting a career match out of someone in a one-off elevation up the card. Inoue clearly knows he's overmatched and just cheats a ton. Akiyama gets pissy and decimates him with bombs to get the crowd on the poor jobber's side. He's annoyed this is even happening and doesn't try to even pin him and repeatedly wants to win by the ten count KO to show how beneath him this is. Masao makes a few comebacks with nearfalls, but it doesn't fully connect with the theme of what they wanted, with Akiyama now shutting him down as fast as he can after he's become in peril. This is because Masao is a career jobber and nobody honestly thinks he can do this, despite the hard work they've both put in. Akiyama wins with the wrist-clutch Exploder. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 3 2014, 09:06 PM Post #53 |
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KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji/Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/SUWA/Low Ki, 5/19/2006 Any KENTA/Low Ki is a gift. Lots of good Low Ki mat stuff with the other three too. Ishimori is a good little FIP for the heels, and while Low Ki gets the most time to shine since he's a guest, SUWA is again wonderful as the ultimate heel. Kanemaru is...also in this match. KENTA has an awesome hot tag against Low Ki, and the finishing run is pretty solid. Kanemaru ends up beating Ishimori with the Touch Out, as expected. *** KENTA [c] vs. Takashi Sugiura [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 6/4/2006 Big epic. Suigura is getting closer and closer to reaching his full potential and he's so much better than he was 1-2 years ago. He's started getting super stiff, and KENTA is offended at anyone trying to outstrike him, and just mauls Sugi in the first third, before Sugi proves himself by winning a slap contest. That's the story basically, that KENTA tries to smack around Sugi like he's been able to for the last year or two, and Sugi has suddenly stepped his game up and KENTA is not at all ready. He gets a few things and immediately tries to send it into finish mode, but Sugi has him so well scouted and cuts off everything. Finishing run is more of the same, and the usually dominant KENTA is forced into a roll up and counter based finishing run hope. Sugi just fucking hammers him with stuff and gets the ankle lock on. He stomps on his head in it and eventually sinks in a grapevine with it and torques it at a disgusting angle, and KENTA has to tap! **** Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone [c] vs. Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda [GHC Tag Team Championship], 6/4/2006 Awesome awesome stuff here. It's probably a little long at 30+, but there's a lot of cool stuff here. Honda brings the old BattlARTS out of Yone and they do some good mat stuff. Kobashi vs. Morishima is again just so fucking good, and it's almost cruel that we never got the singles match they were clearly building through their 2006 encounters. They both rule as the wrecking ball hot tag type member, but this is very much about Honda and Yone. Honda is again a wonderful guy in peril, and Morishima really beats the shit out of him. Kobashi cleans house before getting Honda back in, and Honda hits Yone with a cross-arm Dead End German for the win to get the belts. ***1/2 Of course, this is all useless as Kobashi comes down with cancer later in the month or maybe early in July and is out from here until the end of 2007. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 5 2014, 03:09 AM Post #54 |
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Akira Taue/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Yoshinari Ogawa/Ippi Ota, 7/16/2006 Fun lower card deal. Ota is a new debut, which you'll see more of around this time. Nalkajima kicks super hard. Ota is super sympathetic, and since he retires before becoming a top guy, that's his legacy. He also has a ton of fire, and the value of this is that he brings the fight to Nakajima. Taue is also great in this, and in life in general. Ogawa and Ota have some killer work on the knee of Nakajima, but he ignores it once he gets back in, so that dragged this down. Ota uses a fucking Airplane Spin too. Nakajima vs. Ota is an awesome finishing run despite the no-selling, and Nakajima wins with the Bridging German. **3/4 KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Morishima/Takeshi Rikio, 7/16/2006 This is a highly touted match that I'm seeing for the first time ever. It's the top young junior guys vs. the top young heavyweight guys, and KENTA and Marufuji fight extra hard to prove they're just as good and want the kinds of opportunities that Rikio and Mori get. This being 30 minutes, there is some dead space in the middle, but there's so much great stuff otherwise. Real good control seg on KENTA, hot start, and the finishing run is wonderful. Time obviously runs out at 30 minutes. This is classic NOAH half-pregnant booking where they just REFUSE to take any risks or go all the way with anything new. So the juniors hang with the heavyweights, but gain nothing without actually beating them. We already knew KENTAFuji could hang when they pushed Misawa to the limit and their showings against Kobashi. There's gonna be a lot more of this upsetting booking from now on. ***1/2 Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Yoshihiro Takayama, 7/16/2006 This is Takayama's return match after two years off with injury. Kensuke is replacing Kenta Kobashi here. Lots and lots of cool slugfest type stuff, and Takayama hangs with everyone here. Kensuke has a great return too with some killer strike wars with his chops vs. Misawa's elbows. Akiyama kind of stays out of this until the end, which was kind of a bummer, but hey. As is Japanese custom, Takayama lost his return match as he got hit with an Emerald Frosion followed by a Wrist-Clutch Exploder, and that will put anyone down. ***1/4 KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jun Akiyama/Atsushi Aoki, 8/13/2006 MY DUDE AOKI DEBUTS IN THIS REVIEW! He is a rookie and Akiyama's new protege. With Kobashi going down, the rumored and about to be signed Akiyama/Kobashi title match for September was thrown out and Marufuji got the title shot based on his recent performances against heavyweights, so that's built up here. There's some quality matwork in the first half, but this goes on FOREVER in front of a super dead Differ Ariake, so it's not great. KENTA beats Aoki with the Go to Sleep. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 6 2014, 02:34 AM Post #55 |
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SUWA/Takuma Sano vs. Tamon Honda/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, 9/9/2006 Very enjoyable 10 minutes. SUWA is a piece of shit and the vet BURNING team destroys him. Sano also hits very hard. They do some fun stuff, but it's not really long or coherent enough to be great, instead of just a decent use of 10 minutes. SUWA beats Kikuchi after the FFF. **1/2 KENTA/Katsuyori Shibata vs. Akira Taue/Go Shiozaki, 9/9/2006 This is Shibata's last match before he fucks off to do MMA for a while, I believe. This is pretty fucking great. There's a great subtle thing where having Shibata there as an influence on him actively makes KENTA into a worse person. It's like that one friend in high school who is a huge prick, and you kind of find yourself being more of a prick around him. Taue doesn't stand for that and TRY HARD TAUE AWAKENS. YEAH! Go is a great FIP again, but Taue kills it on the hot tag. Unfortunately, Go gets back in so we don't get a big Taue finishing run. Shibata takes him out with the PK and then they hit Go with a Springboard Doomsday Device to end it. ***1/2 Takeshi Morishima/Takeshi Rikio vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takashi Sugiura, 9/9/2006 Sugi sees the way KENTA and Marufuji have done it, and decides he can kick heavyweight ass too, and this is his big first attempt, now that he's arrived as a top junior. He gets beat up a lot, but hangs tough and comes out better than he came in. This is one of those deals where Takayama gains nothing from a win, so he tries to let Sugi do it all the time. Sugi has some great feats of strength against Mori. Morishima gets a small victory within the tag victory, as he takes out Takayama with the Backdrop, leaving Sugi alone. Rikio ends up beating Sugi with the Muso, disappointingly. *** Jun Akiyama [c] vs. Naomichi Marufuji [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 9/9/2006 Marufuji wins the title here. It's both a great breakthrough seemingly and then annoying after the fact, because why the fuck did Marufuji get to be the one to break the barrier? Why not Liger or Kanemoto or KENTA or Hase or any of the GOAT level junior guys, and not this middle of the road eventually disappointing guy. It's not like he had the insane charisma or star power on any of them, it's just a weird choice by NOAH. But yeah, the match. The match has a lost A LOT to time. At the time, it was a big deal because *holy shit, they just gave the title to a junior*, but it doesn't hold up as much more than a low level great. The knee work early on is kind of killer and it's okay because the transition to Akiyama in control is good enough to make it work, and he didn't do THAT much knee stuff. Then the Akiyama control thing isn't nearly long enough and barely touches on the size and power level difference. Finishing run is probably too long, but has some great nearfalls. Marufuji gets to kick out of a ton and then there's a series of crazy fast things leading to Marufuji using a wrist-clutch inside cradle for the upset. This is disappointing. Marufuji's gotten ahead in 2006 because of how smart he's been, but that came off as more luck than anything, and that's not good. *** Still, this isn't bad in and of itself. Misawa was a junior once too, you know. NOAH's still been good in 2006, but this is the first thing they've done this year that's INTERESTING. And it probably could have succeeded (or at least, succeeded more) if NOAH actually went with it and put all they had into making this work. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 7 2014, 12:10 AM Post #56 |
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Jun Akiyama vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, 10/13/2006 In his shame over losing the belt to a junior, Akiyama goes back to blue trunks. Kikuchi attacks Akiyama and really beats the fuck out of him in a delightful way. Akiyama fights back and then bullies Kikuchi like usual. Some really nasty stretches and then he smacks him around. Kikuchi makes dat comeback for some nearfalls before getting shut down with the Wrist-Clutch Exploder to end it. Really felt like a last great Kikuchi singles match as he's starting to slow down. ***1/4 Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano vs. Akitoshi Saito/KENTA, 10/13/2006 STIFFNESS. KENTA vs. Takayama is again the best match and the obvious focus, but the side players contribute with some nice stuff too. Sano/KENTA delivers a killer slapfest. This probably didn't need to be 25 minutes and would have been fine at 15, but they didn't rub it in your face that it was overlong. Takayama and Sano team up on them at the end and Takayama easily keeps KENTA at bay. Sano hits a Flying Double Stomp to Saito and then the Northern Lights Bomb to win. *** This next match is the main event of a Budokan show. For once, NOAH booked nothing interesting or noteworthy underneath it, and they sent two junior out in the main event with no other help. Of course they didn't draw well, because neither was really established. It's like WWE throwing Ziggler and Ryder/Kingston/Miz whoever out in the main event of a PPV with a shitty undercard full of mix and match tags, of course it's going to do poorly. This is what I mean by saying NOAH didn't put everything behind them. They barely put ANYTHING behind them. It's a killer match, but that's it. Marufuji is seen as a fluke champion, and instead of giving him a rematch with Akiyama or just going by guys booked on that show, a win over Takayama or Misawa, and also given KENTA a win over a mid-level heavyweight, this MIGHT have been able to do alright in a few more months. But it didn't, and NOAH blamed them for it and panicked and did something real dumb in December. But this isn't December yet. Naomichi Marufuji [c] vs. KENTA [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 10/29/2006 This is less of a spotfest than I remember. They start slow and get bigger and bigger, and it's pretty well paced for a match like this, not really climaxing until the final moments. Lots of really brutal kicks from KENTA and increasingly crazy stuff from Marufuji. He almost kills himself on an Asai Moonsault when he hits the railing with his chin. There's some famous stuff here like the Falcon Arrow off the apron and the big finisher trading near the end. This is one of those matches that the first time you see it, is the greatest shit ever, and after that, it loses some of that but is still a lot of fun. KENTA survives the Shiranui Kai, and Maru then debuts the Pole Shift to retain. ***1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 7 2014, 01:27 AM Post #57 |
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Jun Akiyama/Makoto Hashi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Shinjiro Ohtani/Tatsuhito Takaiwa/Kazunari Murakami, 12/2/2006 Zero1 MAX invades with an evil shoot-style friend. Murakami is a huge piece of shit, AND HEY, AKIYAMA AND HASHI ARE BACK TOGETHER! Akiyama is defending his turf against these cocksuckers and is furious about invaders even existing. Hashi hasn't shown up in a while, but he is still just the best dude. Ohtani and Takaiwa are also plenty hateful, and this comes out of nowhere to be a gem. Murakami and Hashi bust each other open hardway with headbutt wars, and Hashi is a wonderful FIP for THE RARE IN THIS DECADE AKIYAMA HOT TAG! FUCK YEAH EVERYTHING! Hashi gets back in for a dramatic finishing run, but he gets nuked by the Takaiwa arsenal while Murakami murders Kanemaru and Ohtani keeps Akiyama at bay. Takaiwa wins with a Lariat. ***3/4 KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson, 12/2/2006 Danielson comes over for his first NOAH tour. The goal is of course for him to give KENTA his win back from ROH in September, but Danielson impresses a lot for obvious reasons. This isn't as dramatic as their ROH Title match and it can't be because this is a totally different environment. Danielson is now working more heelish with dominating matwork and lots of super hard hitting and arrogance. He works over the arm with a lot of different kinds of attacks and many fancy holds. The problem is that KENTA doesn't sell it at all, so this is one of their lesser matches. Still, there's so much great shit in the finishing run that this is great in spite of KENTA. There was a period from late 2006 to mid 2008 where I really wasn't enjoying KENTA, and I'm hoping it's not the same here, He wins with Go to Sleep. *** Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone vs. Yoshihiro Takyama/Takuma Sano [Vacant GHC Tag Team Championship], 12/10/2006 This is also too long at 30ish minutes, but the good parts in this are just SO good. Takayama vs. Morishima is so fantastic. Yone is trying, and has some good exchanges with Sano, who is solid as always. He's the type of dude who will always put on a good performance or at least try his best, but it's almost never remarkable or amazing, so you take him for granted a lot. Morishima gets the win and the titles back with the Backdrop Hold. *** Takeshi Morishima vs. Go Shiozaki, 12/10/2006 This is all of like five minutes. Go tries hard, but Morishima is on fire at this point and shuts everything down and wins with the Backdrop Suplex. **1/4 Jun Akiyama/Makoto Hashi vs. Akitoshi Saito/Shuhei Taniguchi, 12/10/2006 AKIYAMA AND HASHI AGAIN! YAY! This isn't super great because Taniguchi is a recently debuted rookie, but the Akiyama/Hashi interaction is the best. Akiyama still treats Hashi like an incompetent goon and gets furious when he can't finish the rookie. He hits an Exploder and then refuses to let Hashi even try anything else and demands he pins him. He gets the three count and then Akiyama kicks Hashi in the head and leaves. **1/4 Akira Taue/Mushiking Terry/Taiji Ishimori/Atsushi Aoki vs. SUWA/Shuji Kondo/TARU/Brother YASSHI, 12/10/2006 CRAZY MAX/VOODOO MURDERS PAIRING! They're all heelish and annoying and it's all great. SUWA is king of the heels again, and Kondo gets to show off some killer offense. All the guys on Team Taue are nice and sympathetic, which means that Taue can stew on the apron while they be all evil and shit, AND TAUE EXPLODES WITH THE HOT TAG! YEAH! Everything breaks down in a most enjoyable manner, and Taue destroys SUWA. He kicks out of the Dynamic Bomb, so Taue hits the Ore Ga Taue to win. *** Naomichi Marufuji [c] vs. Mitsuharu Misawa [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 12/10/2006 God damnit, NOAH. Alright, so the Marufuji/KENTA show bombed (because they weren't built up properly and there was the most boring undercard NOAH has ever run), so NOAH panics and they basically just reset and give Misawa the title instead of actually doing anything resembling hard work. This match shows how dumb this is, as Misawa has a hard time really going in a main event singles environment. The mind is clearly willing and he can throw some awesome elbows, but the body does not seem to be. There's not a ton of story to this, as Misawa and Marufuji just throw stuff at each other until Misawa wins the title back with a super Emerald Frosion. **3/4 The idea is to give him the title for a long time to build up Morishima, but Morishima is already ready now and probably should have just dethroned Marufuji and gotten a long reign to actually establish HIM. But then that problem isn't until 2008, and NOAH just has so many. 2006 should show why NOAH is where it is now. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 20 2014, 11:11 PM Post #58 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Takashi Sugiura [c] vs. The Briscoes [GHC Junior Tag Team Championship], 1/7/2007 The Briscoes come into NOAH on the heels of Danielson's successful trip and immediately get a title shot. This is totally a 2007 Briscoes tag, which in this case, is a good thing. At their best, that means it's a formula tag with a ton of super super cool spots thrown in and crazy finishing runs. At their worst, it's overlong contrived self-indulgent bullshit without much of a focus. Hoping their NOAH matches are more of the former, but this was a lot of the latter combined with that HORRIBLE Differ Ariake crowd that refuses to make noise for everything. So this was just a jumble of spots not put together particularly well that went on too long. The Briscoes pull off the upset title win with the Springboard Doomsday Device. **1/2 Jun Akiyama vs. Go Shiozaki, 1/21/2007 2007 is when Go starts to become a man, but he made a fuck up and came into this with a taped arm while he tried to suddenly get aggressive. So Akiyama destroys his arm, obviously. He does a lot of really nasty twisting and elbowing to it, an Go sells well when he comes back. It was his right arm that got hurt though, so Akiyama has taken all the chops and Lariats away, so Go has like half the power he needs behind those. He kicks out of the Exploder, but the Wrist-Clutch Exploder keeps him down. *** The Briscoes [c] vs. Kotaro Suzuki/Ricky Marvin [GHC Junior Tag Team Championship], 1/21/2007 This is the more famous one. This takes a little bit to get going and probably would have been better off at 20 minutes and not 25, but it was a killer spotfest anyways. The Briscoes try a little too hard in NOAH and 2007 isn't their best year, but Marvin was SO good about seemingly guiding everyone in the finishing run, and some of the spots were super super fucking innovative, even 7 years later. The finish dragged on a little after the big high point of Marvin stopping the Springboard Doomsday Device with a Springboard Rana to Mark from the other side of the corner. They keep doing stuff and Kotaro hits the Blue Destiny to win. *** Takeshi Rikio/Naomichi Marufuji/KENTA vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Minoru Suzuki/SUWA, 1/21/2007 This is SUWA's retirement match for a time. As such, he gets to face his greatest NOAH rival in KENTA and also be a part of a classic heel vs. face type deal with the best heel in Japan, MiSu, and his big bully friend Takayama. Lots of great exchanges in the first third. KENTA trying to stand up to Takayama is ALWAYS just the best fucking thing. SUWA pulls off one last miracle as he even motivates Rikio. There's a really good finishing run, but then SUWA obviously takes it one step too far and tries to steal the spotlight from his teammates. They get pissed and MiSu puts on a sleeper. He throws him into Maru's Shiranui, and then Rikio hits the Muso before holding him for a running knee from Takayama. KENTA hits the Go to Sleep for the win. A highly appropriate ending for SUWA. ***1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 21 2014, 07:06 PM Post #59 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Bison Smith/Chris Hero/Bobby Fish vs. Takeshi Rikio/Akitoshi Saito/Ricky Marvin, 3/4/2007 Fish is bad, but everyone else holds their own. Bison is a great mean bully, and Marvin looks amazing again as the lucha guy taking it to him without any fear. This is 2007 Hero, so he's doing a lot of the show off type stuff in his lycra shirt and shiny pants. Marvin is again just SO crisp and smooth and briefly looks like the best junior heavyweight alive during this. Rikio also randomly tries again when he abuses Hero. Marvin is a very good FIP. Fish looks better here than he did at any point in his current ROH run, as he's actually agile enough here to throw good and quick kicks. Marvin guides him through a decent finishing run, and then wins with the Santa Maria, which is his take on the Here it is Driver. *** Akira Taue/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano, 3/4/2007 Not amazing or anything, but low end great type of solid midcard deal. The kicky guys do a lot of painful things, and Taue and Marufuji are an entertaining odd couple type of thrown together team. Marufuji fails to properly man up and is isolated and beaten up. Taue has an awesome hot tag. Takayama managed to turn the tide on that though, and Sano pulls off a pretty massive upset as he beats Taue with what we know as Scott Lost's Big Fat Kill. *** It turns out this was NOAH's way of building Sano for a title shot for the next Budokan show. A midcard tag win over an old guy where he didn't really do the bulk of the work. This is a sad state of affairs for NOAH. They have no legit hot or credible heavyweights (besides Takayama, who works for a lot of different places and isn't going to really do any singles jobs), so they're pulling guys out of nothing with no build or credibility for a month instead of just GIVING MORISHIMA OR AKIYAMA THE TITLE AND THEIR PROBLEM. Yet, because Misawa is a draw and because that show has an actual quality card underneath it, they do a solid draw and nobody learns anything. Jun Akiyama vs. Mohammed Yone, 3/4/2007 This is all of four minutes, but rules. Akiyama just goes apeshit as he's really taken it upon himself to wrestle like the Ace in Kobashi's absence and Misawa's ailing health on top. He comes off as the top guy even here squashing someone on the midcard. This comes about because Yone jumps Akiyama on the ramp at the start and then does a lot of face kicking, but Akiyama eventually recovers and kills him. Akiyama hits the Exploder for 2, and then decides not to fuck around with any slow escalation so he can get out of this in a solid 4, and hits the Sternness Dust Alpha to win. **3/4 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takashi Sugiura, 3/4/2007 This was interesting more than great, but it was a good match. Sugiura starts by pissing Misawa off and gets nuked with elbows. The rest of the match is basically Sugi pushing Misawa further and further until the dude snaps by the end and knocks him out with a bunch of mounted elbows. 90% of the shots thrown are awesome, and Misawa clearly tries to elevate Sugiura by letting him do a lot, but not quite enough because Sugiura is being thrown in there now without really being slowly elevated like KENTA and Maru were from 2004 to summer 2006. The ref eventually stops it when Misawa keeps elbowing at a knocked out Sugi. **3/4 Takeshi Morishima [c] vs. KENTA [ROH World Championship], 3/4/2007 This is a pretty big deal, as the ROH Title main events Budokan Hall. There was a fan vote between this and Misawa/Sugi to see what the fans wanted more as the main event, and this sort of surprisingly won. They just work a really fun ten minute sprint of cool moves and head drops and hard hitting. KENTA puts on his best performance yet against a heavyweight, although Morishima should probably still just be steamrolling guys on his way up the card. Stuff happens and Morishima pulls off the obvious retention with the Backdrop. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 22 2014, 02:34 AM Post #60 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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KENTA/Akitoshi Saito/Ippei Ota vs. Bryan Danielson/Ted DiBiase Jr./Joe Legend, 4/1/2007 Ah, back in the day. Ted Jr. looked like had actual promise back here. Danielson guides Ota to some great matwork early on. This is absolutely the kind of match that could have been dragged down by Just Joe and Ted, but this is in magical K-Hall, so they're weirdly motivated and try super hard. Joe is a good white monster for Saito to butt heads with, and Ted isn't ready for this since he only knows basics, but mostly stays out of the way. Joe vs. Ota is the big run at the end, so this isn't a great match due to having almost no Danielson or KENTA. Legend beats Ota with an Impaler DDT. **3/4 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone [c] vs. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio [GHC Tag Team Championship], 4/1/2007 This was a lot of fun. Not a lot of story or structure besides Akiyama hating everything, but they had a super hot K-Hall crowd and did a really solid heavyweight slugfest. Nothing groundbreaking, but Morishima and Akiyama were great as usual, and Rikio and Yone were reasonably motivated. Rikio beats Yone with the Muso to sort of surprisingly win the belts given how thrown together Akiyama and Rikio are as a team. *** Bryan Danielson/Taiji Ishimori vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Atsushi Aoki, 4/4/2007 Differ Ariake sucks again, but this rules anyways. Danielson guides Aoki on the mat, and MY DUDE AOKI really really fucking brings it against AmDrag. Marufuji and Ishimori do some decent stuff too, but this is largely Danielson just dominating Aoki on the mat and the kid trying his best to stay alive and doing just enough to still be alive. The other two do some low level highspots, and Danielson then makes Aoki tap out to the Cattle Mutilation. This was super low reaching and minimalistic, and it's one of my favorite NOAH matches so far in 2007. ***1/4 KENTA/Akitoshi Saito/Atsushi Aoki vs. Bryan Danielson/Bison Smith/Ricky Marvin, 4/14/2007 MORE DANIELSON/AOKI! AND SOME DANIELSON/KENTA! This also shows the upsetting side of NOAH post-2005 as they did that super fun Marvin/Bison tag in March, and they're friends again a month later. Aoki is again just a wonderful FIP. Bison does great work on him as a monster, but this is largely once again the Danielson show for the control segment. KENTA does stuff at the end and then Aoki gets in. Danielson/Aoki rules AGAIN, and Danielson again makes him tap out to the Cattle Mutilation. *** Jun Akiyama/Go Shiozaki vs. Yoshihiro Tayakama/Takashi Sugiura, 4/14/2007 Really great match, and it's better for only being 15 minutes instead of trying to reach for more. Akiyama vs. Takayama rules at the start, but this is about Sugiura. While Misawa tried his best, he no longer really has what it takes to properly elevate someone. Akiyama AGAIN basically shows why he's secretly almost still of the top guy as he takes Sugiura from a tough strong guy who is transitioning to heavyweight status and makes him a mid-level heavyweight players with how much he gives him and how he repeatedly gets the best of him. Go is a decent FIP, and then Akiyama's hot tag rules. While I say he's still kind of the top guy, the fact that the company doesn't think he is allows Akiyama to drop falls occasionally for big moments, AND SUGIURA PULLS OFF THE UPSET WITH THE OLYMPIC SLAM! WHOA! *** CIMA/Susumu Yokosuka/Dragon Kid vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Ricky Marvin/Ippei Ota, 4/28/2007 Dragon Gate invades, with the Typhoon stable led by CIMA. DG isn't usually a place for heavy interpromotional beef, but NOAH absolutely is, and the DG dudes adapt well by being mean and nasty and isolating the young boy and destroying him. OR rather, CIMA and Susumu do. Dragon Kid is here to work super fast and smooth cruiserweight-y stuff with Marvin, and that is also amazing. Anyways, the control seg on poor Ota is awesome, because double and triple teams is the Dragon System speciality. Big ass finishing run with great nearfalls, and Susumu beats Ota with the Mugen. ***1/2 Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio [c] vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takashi Sugiura [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 4/28/2007 SHOCKER. RULES. Akiyama is absolutely livid that Sugiura made a name off of him, and that is the basic story. Sugiura wants to show it's not a fluke, and then there's a cool thing with Takayama subtly playing teacher and making Sugiura be more of a badass. This winds up with him getting his ass kicked and isolated after a nasty bump off the ramp. In a great touch, Akiyama is so pissed off that he's going for actual wins during the control segment, which really adds a lot of credibility when Sugi survives and fights back to make a tag. Takayama comes in but is overwhelmed and Sugiura gets back in and actually winds up doing better and directing traffic for the team, and holy shit, they're putting Sugiura in a way I never imagined, so he's actually coming off tougher than fucking Takayama. Some real dramatic nearfalls in the finishing run, and although Rikio slows it down some, he's out after a bit and we get back to the real story. Some more dramatic shit, and Big Boss Sugi absolutely MASTERS the fighting spirit kind of sell here. Disappointingly, NOAH fucks up the story by having Rikio pin Sugiura with the Muso to retain. The story either needed Sugiura proving it's not a fluke or Akiyama getting out of his big match slump, and they went with neither, because NOAH is afraid of actually following up on interesting things. Sugiura was on the verge of being a pretty big deal if he'd won the match here, but instead, he doesn't catch on fire as a top guy until 2009, and by then it's really too late for NOAH to be saved. ****1/4 |
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6:53 PM Jul 10